Pre-owned housing market heats up CHINA’S pre-owned housing market staged signs of heating up in February amid incentive policies, an industrial report said. The demand for pre-owned houses in 65 investigated Chinese cities surged 34.7 percent month on month, according to a report by online marketplace 58.com and housing information platform anjuke.com. The number of newly-added pre-owned houses on the platform increased 9.9 percent from one month earlier, the report showed. The average price of pre-owned homes rose 0.42 percent month on month in February. The upturn mainly resulted from the unleashing of demand, said Lu Qilin, a researcher with 58 Anjuke Institute. Express industry to see faster consolidation CHINA’S express and delivery sector is expected to see faster consolidation via mergers and acquisitions (M&A) in the next few years, according to a report from Fitch Ratings. Since 2021, the country has seen a string of M&A deals including JD Logistics, and S.F. Holding that have reportedly completed acquisitions, respectively, the report said. Fitch expects consolidation to continue in the next few years, with major operators acquiring smaller peers or even peers of similar size, especially targets with similar business models or where acquisition will yield synergies. Coal output grows to stabilize market supply CHINA’S coal market has seen growth in output since late February amid the country’s efforts to stabilize production and ensure supply, the top economic planner said. The country’s daily output of coal has maintained more than 12 million tons since late February, up 10 percent year on year, the National Development and Reform Commission said. Daily output of Shanxi, Inner Mongolia and Shaanxi came in at over 9 million tons, the commission said, noting that high output has driven the coal supply to further increase. February power battery output surges 236.2% CHINA’S power battery production continues to boom as the output in February had more than tripled the figure logged one year earlier, boosted in part by strong demand for new energy vehicles, industrial data showed. The output of power batteries rocketed 236.2 percent year on year to 31.8 gigawatt-hours (GWh) last month, data from the China Automotive Battery Innovation Alliance showed. | 